Facebook Turns to Face State Policy

Facebook’s policy shop is expanding once again, this time to focus on state issues.

Will Castleberry will join Facebook’s Washington, D.C., office next month as director of state public policy, according to spokesman Andrew Noyes.

“It’s imperative that we scale our state policy team so that we have the resources in place to demonstrate to policymakers that we are industry leaders in privacy, data security and safety,” Noyes said in an email.

Castleberry comes to Facebook from AOL, where he held a similar job and managed the company’s federal legislative portfolio. Before that, he managed government affairs for MCI and held several posts in Maryland state government.

As privacy and Internet regulations become a bigger focus for Congress and state legislatures, Facebook has been expanding its policy focus. Last year, the company hired lobbyists with Republican ties in Washington, D.C., and launched a political action committee for employees to pool contributions.